Does Your Bucket List Motivate You?

Today, I was watching and listening to a motivational video talking about the importance of making a list of the things we want to accomplish in life and realized that I had stopped believing in the importance of what are now called bucket lists.

The reason I stopped caring about these type of lists is that I had accomplished so many of the things on my list, and they hadn’t brought the kind of nirvana that I expected. In fact, I still feel like I’m muddling through life like the vast majority of people, despite achieving goals that I had once thought impossible.

As I’ve aged, the most precious commodity to me has become time. I realize that there is less and less of it left in my life. For me, I don’t want to run around chasing elusive goals just to be able to check off yet another To Do list.

In fact, there has been one major goal on my bucket list for the last four years, which has been to slow down my life and be present for all of life’s little moments with my kids.

I also looked at a magnet on my refrigerator — We Plan — God Laughs.

Yet, for all my skepticism about bucket lists, without having written what I call a dream scene about twenty years ago, I probably wouldn’t be spending my time watching my two boys grow in to men or writing stories and blogs with my two dogs as companions or enjoying the honor of coaching socially conscious entrepreneurs. Writing down my longings in lists and journals had an effect on my choices.

As I thought how the boys will be leaving home in a few years, and my dogs unfortunately won’t live forever, nor will many of the older people who are so important in my life now, it became clear maybe it’s time for a new bucket list.

I never thought much about what I’d do after I reached the age that I am now. When you’re young life seems to go on forever. Knowing what I do now . . . that the achievement of my dreams is not a static thing, but an ever-changing evolution, I’m ready to start dreaming about my journey for ten and twenty years from now.

I’m also looking back at the dreams of my younger years when I was 15, 21, 25, 35, and 40. I’m grateful for that young and naive self for having dreams and desires and taking the risks to make them come true, even when I completely failed to reach some of them.

Here are a few questions for your contemplation today:

Do you have any goals that are motivating you now?

Is is time to add some new ones to your list?

How are you now living a once longed for dream that you might be taking for granted?

Here’s to the wonder of all the ways in which we create our destiny. Even something as simple as writing a list of all the goals, relationships and adventures we want in life. It is actually possible to write and sketch out our destiny.

2 thoughts on “Does Your Bucket List Motivate You?”

I remember reading somewhere that our goals aren’t the destination but rather pit-stops on the endless journey. We have to appreciate our journey and use goals to mark and measure it. That way we don’t see the goal as being that important, it’s just a marker to head for so we stay on the path we’ve chosen. Lovely post. 🙂

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